One day, maybe not too far in the future, we will look back at the conspiracies surrounding UFOs and find out that they too are revealed as realities. Of course, disclosure has been promised many times by those allegedly “in the know”. Hell, the folks in Exopolitics predict Disclosure as imminent every chance they get, and then come up with the most ridiculous of excuses for why it is denied to the citizens of the world when their ill issued predictions go up in smoke.

But this article is not about true UFO Disclosure. It is about the strange bedfellows that Ufologists seem to keep in their alleged pursuit of truth. You see, when you climb high enough up the ladder of Ufology and are prominent in the field; the strangest of characters approach you with promises of “disclosure”. Normally, the ruse goes something like this. Approach subject Ufologist and make claims that you are in the know. Then shower said Ufologist with feelings of “eliteness” by offering them an inside look at the truth. When they take the bait, deny them the information promised, but keep them on a string with promises of information that will slowly be revealed in good measure and time.

Now you are probably wondering, when I was the International Director of MUFON, did this ever happen to me? Actually it didn’t, but then again I made it public knowledge that I would not accept inside sources who were not willing to go public with their identity and their claims. So I was not willing to play the game to begin with and those who refuse to dance are never asked to.

Speaking of strange relationships, in 2009, billionaire entrepeneur Robert Bigelow decided to hire MUFON to conduct UFO investigations on behalf of his new venture, BAASS, an alleged aerospace company interested in discovering and exploiting novel and cutting edge technologies that relate to space travel.

Well what is so unusual about that? Maybe it has to do with the following interesting facts:

John Schuessler, MUFON Board Member and former International Director was offered a U.S. government security clearance allegedly related to his consulting work for Mr. Bigelow. Now whether John was actually given that clearance, I can’t say for sure, but I was one of the people interviewed as part of his background investigation.

Mr. Bigelow did not fund MUFON’s work for BAASS, instead “sponsors” that Bigelow revealed to John Schuessler but not to the other MUFON Board Members put up the money.

Mr. Bigelow invalidated his own legal contract with MUFON by refusing to abide by the original deal struck with MUFON and instead changed the terms mid-stream, something the MUFON Board of Directors acquiesced to despite my protests.

During the project, MUFON provided both historical MUFON files as well as current MUFON case files (including witness information) to BAASS. To cover MUFON legally, the MUFON UFO reporting form was modified to collect the witness’ permission to offer their sighting data to a third party, the only third party being BAASS.

When I uncovered some very damaging information about the Skinwalker Ranch (also owned by Mr. Bigelow) and provided that information to the MUFON Board along with my doubts about the true agenda of the BAASS-MUFON relationship, the MUFON Board unethically bypassed me and communicated in secret with BAASS in an attempt to continue the project. When I found out about this unethical behavior, initiated by my former friend and current International Director Clifford Clift and MUFON Board member Jan Harzan (probably the next International Director after Cliff retires), I resigned immediately from the MUFON Board and the International Director position.

Rather than reveal the truth of why I resigned to the MUFON membership, Cliff decided to whitewash the unfortunate events while he swept his broom around MUFON, portraying me as an inept leader who brought MUFON to financial ruin and presenting himself as the savior of the organization. His betrayal stung me to my very core, as I considered him a friend for fourteen years until he revealed who he truly was. At the 2010 MUFON Symposium he told the MUFON State Directors that I left MUFON because the “truth” I was seeking was not the same “truth” the MUFON Board of Directors sought.

So for the leading UFO organization in the world, whose mission statement is the scientific investigation of UFOs, what truth is Mr. Clift alluding to? Maybe it is the sad truth that without a wealthy benefactor behind MUFON, the organization is but an army of volunteers with no funding for their scientific investigation, and if staying within the good graces of the only willing benefactor means compromising ethics and the duties and obligations a non-profit organization has to its membership and to the public, then so be it. I suggest that the MUFON membership deserves more from their leadership.

In fact, every MUFON member should take Mr. Clift up on his promises of transparency and demand answers to the following questions which should be posed to the MUFON Board of Directors:

Does John Schuessler currently have an active government security clearance and for what reason was it granted? What is John’s current relationship to BAASS and Mr. Bigelow?

Does MUFON still provide current UFO reports to BAASS? If not, then why is the 3rd party witness election still on MUFON’s “Report a UFO” form on the MUFON web site?

Is the MUFON Board of Directors willing to give an accurate history including publicly releasing all supporting documentation of the MUFON-BAASS legal contract that encompasses the entire project period?

What is MUFON’s current relationship to BAASS and Mr. Bigelow?

The MUFON Board of Directors may be in pursuit of their own truth, but the real truth has an odd way of surfacing even after many years, as the CIA-Mafia affair shows. How can those in the field of Ufology seek disclosure from outside if they are not willing to seek disclosure from within first? The choices made by the MUFON Board during the MUFON-BAASS project demands complete openness and transparency so that the conspiracy theory behind the MUFON-BAASS relationship is put to rest. MUFON’s leadership should practice what it preaches and leave no details hidden if it wishes MUFON to retain any semblance of respectability in this field already filled with enough unanswered questions and shadowy characters and organizations. It is time for MUFON to sweep its own house clean.

1 comment
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Thank you for posting James Carrion's insightful letter. I have been impressed by the enormous complexity of the flying saucer subject and the ambitious goals of MUFON given its lack of institutional scientific support. As a volunteer investigator for MUFON I am concerned how little training I was provided in associated paranormal subjects. For example why are not all the works of Dr. Jacques Valle and John Keel part of a each investigator's required readings? Why are not the similarities between shamans' contacts with non-human beings, the folk history of fairies, the accounts of DMT subjects as described by Dr Strassman and alleged alien abductions part of the MUFON analysis of CE-3s and CE-4s?

MUFON sadly operates in my judgment as if the UFO question was an engineering problem. Endless descriptions of the physical characteristics of sightings shed little light on the nature of the problem and the challenges that investigators face. Even worse has been the uncritical acceptance of the unethical use of hypnosis by self trained abduction investigators who exploit witnesses and the deceive the public for personal gain.

If MUFON is to serve the public and to use scientific tools to investigate the phenomenon, a more rigorous standard of investigations will need to be established with much input from the fields of history, folklore,psychology, parapsychology, investigations of the occult and the paranormal. This is a tall order and I yet this mystery in its complexity demands better from MUFON.

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